ST. LOUIS – An oral surgeon in the St. Louis Metro Area has done something to stop the opioid crisis, which could become a trend in the area.
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With Madison County seeing more drug-related deaths in 2018 than any previous year at more than 100, and Missouri having more than 900 opioid deaths in 2017, people across the St. Louis Metro Area and across the country have become aware of a growing opioid crisis. While pills have given way to heroin, which itself has given way to the even more lethal synthetic opioid Fentanyl, people often get their start at opioid addiction through prescriptions for opioid painkillers from medical procedures – often dental-related.
Dr. Tyman Loveless, DMD, MD, is a Harvard-trained dentist who finished his residency at Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in 2014. He has been in private practice for around five years. He has been associated with Dr. David Ivey in St. Peters, Missouri, for three years before opening his own practice in St. Louis in 2017. He has decided to do away with opioids almost entirely in his practice. The State of Missouri has also passed emergency legislation to regulate how dentists can prescribe opioids.
Instead of opioids, a representative from Dr. Loveless's office said the doctor uses non-addictive and non-narcotic painkillers, such as high doses of ibuprofen and a recently-patented non-narcotic pain reliever put on the market in 2018 called Exparel. Exparel is a long-lasting analgesic, which is placed on the patient's gums or other oral areas during surgery and provides long-lasting relief following surgery.
While Dr. Loveless himself does not have any (known) experience with opioid addiction in his personal or professional life, research cited by the office stated as many as five percent of patients may have another healthcare diagnosis related to opioid addiction and dependency a year after a surgical procedure was produced with narcotics are prescribed.
